Rupert Bent

Work Department

Intellectual Property

Position

Partner and Head of Intellectual Property

Career

Rupert heads the Walker Morris Intellectual Property Department advising on all types of contentious and non-contentious matters, including a dedicated Trade Marks & Designs team. He has been elected to the Institute of Trade Mark Agents (ITMA) and is a regular published writer for the ITMA Review.

As former Head of IP Litigation for the regions at Pinsent Masons, Rupert advises on the full range of contentious intellectual property matters, including patent, trade mark, copyright, design right and passing-off disputes, as well as non-contentious issues including licensing and branding. With over two decades of experience, Rupert has successfully led high profile litigation for a variety of household name companies, achieving a 100% success rate in the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

Additionally, Rupert has had the benefit of in-house experience at Marks & Spencer Plc and Arcadia Limited. At Marks & Spencer, Rupert was responsible for protecting, enforcing and advising in relation to Marks & Spencer’s entire intellectual property portfolio. Rupert has also built up a particular expertise in enforcing rights on social media, including trade mark and copyright infringement, the removal of imposter accounts and defamatory comments from Facebook, Twitter and blogs and is a recognised speaker on these topics.

Rupert has been ranked as a Leading Individual by Chambers and Partners and Legal 500, the industry guides to legal practitioners, in which he has been described as: “Hugely experienced in IP matters”; “Famous for his litigation and internet work”; “Always impresses with his attention to detail, speed of response and friendly, down to earth attitude”; “Commercial and excels at demystifying complex matters” and having “deep knowledge, excellent customer service and he gets it done.”

The 2018 year in review in Korea was notable for the sluggish overall economy, uncertainty surrounding the geo-politics and impact on Korea due to the global trade wars, on-going concerns related to the lack of jobs and unemployment, increased taxes and burdens for businesses and families, and no meaningful improvement or clarity in the current situation for 2019. In response, the Korean National Assembly passed a legislation called the Financial Innovation Support Act (the ‚ÄúFinISA‚ÄĚ) on December 7, 2018 to spark the financial services industry in conjunction with FinTech products and services. The FinISA, which will soon take effect in March 2019, is intended to lay the legal foundation to introduce a regulatory sandbox for innovative financial services, where FinTech firms test their new products and services without certain regulatory oversight pursuant to exemptions for a limited period of time (‚ÄúSandbox‚ÄĚ). As the FinISA exempts or defers application of existing finance-related regulations for new financial technology, products or services with the purpose of fostering the creation of innovative and new financial products and services, it will also support the stabilization of such services in the financial services market at the end of the testing period and is expected that the FinISA will support a revitalization of the FinTech industry which experienced sluggish growth in recent times. In particular, as companies and investors become more interested in security tokens and Security Token Offerings (‚ÄúSTO‚ÄĚ) which are regulated by the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act (the ‚ÄúFSCMA‚ÄĚ), there have been on-going discussions and debates as to whether the FinISA could lead to a breakthrough in the crypto-asset industry based on blockchain technology. Crypto assets encompasses those assets which utilize blockchain technology where the asset is digitalized by utilization of cryptography, peer-to-peer networks and a public ledger of verified transactions resulting in a ‚Äėunits‚Äô of such a crypto asset without any involvement by middle-persons or brokers (e.g., cryptocurrency.

The sacking of Nissan‚Äôs high-profile chairman may have beenproof that nobody is infallible. But Nicola Sharp argues that it should also beseen as an indicator that no company can be considered safe from wrongdoing.

Advertisements featuring statements on the effects of medical treatments are only permissible if they are supported by sound scientific evidence. This was reaffirmed by the Oberlandesgericht (OLG) Frankfurt, the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt.

For a sign to be capable of being registered as an EU trade mark, it must be distinctive across the entire European Union. This was confirmed by the Court of Justice of European Union (ECJ) in a ruling from 25 July 2018.

As one of the leading law firms in Cyprus, we are active promoters and supporters of local economic growth by sponsoring local events, applying environmental-friendly practices, minimizing our ecological impact, and most importantly, by raising money for local charities and non-profit organizations.

Recently there were a lot of publications within the European Union expressing concerns about the allegedly very high number of Cypriot passports being given to foreign investors the last few years. The Council of Ministers has decided on 9th January 2018 with the decision with number 84.069, to impose a stricter supervision of all the parties involved in the Scheme for the naturalisation of non-Cypriot investors in Cyprus by exception.

In order to harmonize the¬† Acquis Communautaire on the Taxation of untapped and undeveloped plots of land, the Cyprus Government enacted, on 03/11/2017, relevant legislation for the imposition of 19% Value Added Tax (VAT) on these properties, with a date of enforcement being 02/01/2018. The relevant legislation refers to plots/pieces of land offered and/or provided for construction for economic purposes.